The Honest Grit of Creation: What Building Illusions Taught Me About an Entertainer’s Journey

Over the course of several decades engineering and fabricating illusions, tricks, and props for magic shows around the globe, I’ve learned a thing or two.

My Role in the Magic: A Peek Behind the Curtain

First, for my friends not in the magic biz, here’s a little precursor. Magicians usually come to guys like me with a loose idea for some cool new trick. It’s then my job to ask all the important questions: What’s the venue like? How are you transporting this from A to B? What materials make sense? What’s the absolute must-have element here? We also have to narrow down the solution, using those deep secrets of the magic world that actually make the stuff work, all while keeping an eye on the budget – and that’s not always in that particular order.

Now, some tricks are mass-produced, ready to go “off the shelf,” kind of like buying a car straight off the lot. But I’m the custom-order guy. I’m the one they come to for that unique, one-of-a-kind piece that nobody else has – assuming I’ve done my job right, of course.

The Big Question: "Why Does It Cost So Much?"

And you know, regardless of whether it’s a totally unique custom build or one of the tricks I develop for wider sale, one of the biggest things I still hear magicians say over the years is, “I can’t believe it costs that much!” So, while that applies across the board, let me specifically pull back the curtain a bit on the tricks and products I develop to be sold commercially, because there’s a whole lot, many folks don’t see behind that statement either, not just with the one-of-a-kind pieces.

The Honest Grit of Development (What Goes into a Single Trick)

You see, you rarely get a perfect solution on the first try. It can take several attempts, and a lot of road-testing in real-world conditions, to iron out all the kinks. Sometimes, you think you’ve landed on the perfect materials or the slickest solution, and they just flat-out don’t perform the way you expected. Even after more than 50 years in this game, I’m always learning; I’m still a student, though hopefully a bit of a teacher too. You often have to back-pedal, rethink, and re-engineer so that, at the end of the day, the perfect trick finally hits the market looking and working exactly the way it should. Let’s face it, building it right on my end often takes longer than a month. And then, for the magician, you can’t just expect to perform it flawlessly next week. Think of it like this: if you received a brand-new, perfectly crafted prosthetic leg, you wouldn’t expect to be dancing on it in a week, would you? There’s always a learning curve to make it look effortless.

What I’m really trying to say is that a tremendous amount of time, effort, and expense gets poured into even one short trick you see a magician perform on stage. They get the glory for all my hard work (LOL)!

From "Failures" to Finished Product: A Project with Cody Fisher

The photos I’ve shared here? They’re my way of showing you that not every idea starts out perfect. What you’re seeing are early-stage, rough prototypes—some outright failures, to be blunt, from ’round one’ of development. But that’s exactly how this works! We often kick things off with more basic, less expensive materials precisely to find those failures and learn from them, to nail down the mechanics and design. That way, we work out all the initial kinks before we even think about moving to the top-quality stuff for the final product that eventually hits the market. So, if some of it looks a bit raw, or like a dead end, that’s just the honest grit of these early stages! This particular project you’re seeing, with all its initial trial-and-error evident in these pics, is one I’m really excited about – it’s a joint effort with my good friend and fellow pro magician, Cody Fisher. We’re working on this one together, and a big part of our process is Cody taking these ideas (even the rough ones!) and working out all the bugs in front of live audiences. That way, before anything ever hits the market, we know it’s not just a clever concept, but a trick that truly works in the real world. Between his stage expertise and my time in the workshop, the goal is always to put out something super practical, quality built, and complete with several routines, ready for performers to actually use. This reminds me: magicians often have truly great and grandiose ideas. What they sometimes lack is the specific know-how, the budget, or the real-world working experience to bring it to life – which is where guys like us, and good collaboration, come in.

Lessons from Decades on the Road

I was fortunate enough to tour coast-to-coast up until the late 90s, around 1998, doing shows in everything from church basements and other wonderfully impractical settings, all the way up to massive arenas where the first row of the audience was a good 50 feet away. So yeah, you could say I’ve learned a thing or two about what works – and what definitely doesn’t – in just about every real-world performance situation you can imagine.

Embracing the "Flops": Wisdom from Edison

And trust me, not all magic is beautiful at its roots. It reminds me so much of inventors like Edison. I’m sure we’d all get a good laugh at how crude and clunky some of those first attempts and “flops” – yeah, his failures – must have looked. But it hammers home one vital truth: the best ideas are always transformed by development, redevelopment, sheer ingenuity, and a healthy dose of practicality.

Life's a Blank Slate: Your Masterpiece in the Works

Life is a blank slate… so never give up. Sometimes, starting over – like I’ll be doing with the project in these photos – is truly okay. Because at the end of the day, if you stick with it, you really can end up with a masterpiece. And that’s not just the illusion taking shape on the workbench; it’s true for you, too. We’re all a kind of masterpiece, constantly in the works.

What are your thoughts on this? What’s the biggest ‘behind-the-scenes’ lesson you’ve learned in crafting your act or your brand as an entertainer? Drop a comment below – I read every one.

And if you found these insights helpful, I encourage you to explore the other articles and resources available right here on the Branding For Entertainers site. There’s plenty more to discover that can support you on your journey – feel free to browse around when you’re ready.